


fire and grace

by Balthuza



Category: Shards of the Sun (D&D Campaign)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 02:42:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16904583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Balthuza/pseuds/Balthuza
Summary: There is a part of him that understands, a small one that used to be human, but today it just serves to make him more angry.





	fire and grace

It has been years, but for him it is barely a blink, and the flame of anger never really dies in his veins, a paradox in itself. Sometimes it is reduced to embers, sometimes the details change, but it is what he is, and it does not change. 

There is a part of him that understands, a small one that used to be human, but today it just serves to make him more angry. He knows Dross agrees with Ashke, he couldn’t hide his pride if he tried, and Trithereon forces the flames down, just a notch.

He tightens his grip on the spear when she tries to mentally stare him down, but does not cut her off.

They are young, both of them, and they care about too many things. Trithereon breathes a sigh when the tyrant falls.

The king is dead, long live the king. 

He is the judge and the executioner, yes. He is not a saviour, no more than a wildfire is salvation, and they should know that. Cities, empires and dynasties rise and fall and it is their job to see that they fall when they need to, not to hold their hand, not to built them anew.

People die, everyday, everywhere and every single minute. It is not their place to pick and choose which ones to save. It is their place to arm them and give them the freedom of choice. The power to save themselves, rather than to be left on the mercy of religion. He expects the the whispers, and is not surprised when they come, the faint smoke lines of prayers for mercy or for help, and he has neither to offer.

He tests his believers in fire. Nobody who will back down from the flames will survive his grace.

The king is dead, long live the king.

He is too angry to explain this at the moment, to either of them - that it is not about helping people, choosing them over the fight that it is about. 

He is angry that they do not see the difference between murder and execution, between giving people a chance and giving them a choice.

Between letting them get tested by the flames and teaching them to keep away from fire.

Freedom is not a gift, it is a reward and if they did not earn it, they will not be able to keep it.

The king is dead, long live the king.

Trithereon sighs and hopes, for the sake of the people that Ashke saved, that their new king is a good man, because he knows if they need to start the fires of the revolution again, the people there will burn, waiting to be saved once more.

 


End file.
